At first glance, it seems like a relief that 86 percent of NFL players polled by ESPN last week say they are all right with having a gay teammate. If nothing else, it’s better than 86 percent saying they are not all right with it.

But a locker room can be wrecked by a much smaller minority than that. And the progress of a barrier-breaking athlete can be derailed the same way.

The Miami Dolphins are living proof. The Brooklyn Dodgers are historical proof.

A mere three players out of the 60 or so on the Dolphins roster last season, active and injured players included, did the damage — and a case can be made that it was only one, Richie Incognito, with Mike Pouncey and John Jerry meekly and obediently following his lead. Their prime target, Jonathan Martin, was not gay or even suspected of being gay; he simply was an offensive linemate who they felt wasn’t up to their standard for “toughness.” They didn’t even need anything as emotionally-charged as his sexuality as a pretense to prey on him.

In the original poll, seven of 51 players asked said that having a gay teammate “matters” to them; over an average NFL roster, that figure would be eight players. On the Dolphins, meanwhile, it could be claimed that 95 percent of the roster wasn’t interested in harassing a teammate until he stormed out of the facility, left the team and sought professional help.

But 5 percent did — and, as Joe Philbin unwittingly demonstrated on Thursday at the Combine in Indianapolis, that 5 percent can do its damage completely away from the notice of the head coach. It could be years before the full consequences of what happened there are known. The team and the NFL are drawing up a new blueprint for how players conduct themselves around each other, on the fly.

Thus, the 95 percent didn’t matter, even if it really was that high. Just as 86 percent of players indicating they have no problem with a gay player on the team doesn’t promise as much as it seems.

For one thing, it doesn’t even promise that all the players polled told the truth. For another, the players’ answers to three other questions — had they known of teammates and coaches using homophobic slurs last season, were they comfortable showering with a gay teammate, would such a player be comfortable in an NFL locker room — showed that there would be obstacles regardless of each players’ individual feelings.

Still, was the Dolphins’ debacle an isolated incident, no matter how far the repercussions will go? Yes, and no. The comparisons between Jackie Robinson’s integration of major league baseball and the potential entry of Michael Sam (or another player) into the NFL have been fodder for intense debate.

This much is uncontested, though: in the Dodgers’ spring training camp in 1947, at least four players started a petition to keep Robinson off the team.

The story has been told countless times, most notably recently in last year’ Robinson biopic “42.” The revolt was quashed by manager Leo Durocher (his colorful late-night team meeting to tell the players where they could stick the petition is part of baseball lore) and owner Branch Rickey.

But that was four players out of 25 on the eventual regular-season roster – or, to be fair, 24, excluding Robinson himself. So, 88 percent didn’t actively oppose a black player joining the team.

Need one more example, from Robinson’s debut season? About 86 percent of the Dodgers’ National League opponents, six out of seven, weren’t accused of plotting a boycott against them, and weren’t threatened with suspension by the league president as he staunchly defended Robinson’s right to play.

But one team was: the St. Louis Cardinals.

So, as encouraging as the 86-percent figure in the players’ poll sounds, unless it’s 100 percent, the NFL has a potential problem on its hands.